In the Garden
by Yoruyonaka Sakusha
Summary: Can something as simple and boring as growing vegetables take away some Cat vs Rat tension?
1. Chapter 1

**Um, yeah. So, you get one less chapter than you thought, because this was supposed to be split up, originally. Short chapters. :P**

**And... well, sorry guyz. After... maybe Febuary or something I'll get to finishing the MASSIVE amount of tidbit stories and chapters I've got piling up in my fanfiction folder. Being a senior in High School is scary shit. D:**

He hadn't meant for anything to come of it. He had _seen_ the rat's stupid garden before, so it wasn't like that was anything new. He had walked through it a few times out in the woods, careful not to leave his mark on the not-so-secret base that Yuki guarded with a brutal force. It wasn't anything special, really – at least, he didn't think so then. He had to admit that, yes, it was _nice_. The garden itself was peaceful; you could tell that the hands that had tended to it did so with a special care, which was clear enough through the healthiness of the various flowers and vegetables that brightened the area with all sorts of colors. It was pleasant and clean, well groomed, and seemed to have an organization to it that just sort of screamed 'Yuki'. The guy had a talent for it. Beyond recognition, though, Kyo hadn't ever thought anything special of the plants, much less growing them.

And that's how he thought it would be when he started walking the familiar path he sometimes took. He had left the house to Tohru and her friends. Their company had proved too much for Kyo to deal with without snapping, and when he had left somewhat peacefully (Uotani could make that hard), Yuki had still been politely helping to entertain the two extra girls. He'd been out for a while by now, and figured that he would get back. If the annoying Yankee and wave girl were still there, he could always beat it up to his room. Yuki's garden happened to be on his way back, and curiosity often pulled Kyo over just to look and see how the garden had changed since last time. He was spacing out, thinking about other things as he cut from the normal path, slipping through trees to the area he knew the garden was in, so he was rather surprised to suddenly find its creator squatting among his plants.

Kyo stumbled to a quick stop, backtracking a few steps so as not to be seen. Without thinking, he slunk back into the trees, crouching ridiculously among the few bushes that lined the cleared patches of earth so as not to be seen. He felt a bit too much like he was intruding upon enemy territory to allow himself to saunter by, and by the time he realized he was just being stupid – he could walk around it, for gods sake – it was too late; the rat had already turned towards him, and if he made any noise or stood up from his position now, he would just look like some creepy stalker. So, flustered, Kyo settled back carefully, giving it up as a lost cause and proceeded to wait, watching Yuki (much like the stalker he definitely was not).

He was wearing his garden gloves that Kyo saw laying around the house from time to time, worn with use and always smelling like soft earth and fresh grass. He had a trowel in one hand, using it to dig a small hole in a patch of combed earth, a rake and a hoe laying off to the side. Right beside him there were some small potted plants that had been sitting on the porch earlier – some kind of herb, Kyo thought – only two left among the bunch, the rest already having been planted before Kyo showed up.

His hands worked deftly, obvious used to such a task, and within a second he had the next plant in the ground perfectly, already working on digging the last hole. Kyo shifted a bit, the quiet examination making him a bit uncomfortable since the other didn't know he was watching. The last plant was in the ground within a moment, an even amount of dirt on the top of the dirt already sponged on the growing roots. Yuki sat back then, the hair that had fallen in front of his eyes sifting to the side naturally as he looked down at his handiwork. Kyo saw that at one point, he must have pushed his bangs aside, since there's a smudge of dirt along his cheek. The boy's fingers played gently over the few small leaves that grew on the plant, touching it with awareness for how fragile it was. Even though the hands were gloved, you could see the way they knew how to treat the tiny, delicate thing, almost as if he could feel through the gloves. And then, Yuki smiled.

Any expression of annoyance that had been on Kyo's face fell away, any disinterest turning swiftly into an earnest want to _know_ what kind of feeling it was to grow something and then be able to _smile_ at it like that; a soft, happy, caring smile that lit up Yuki's face in a way he hadn't seen before, even around Tohru.

And, well, that's how it began.

**TBC**


	2. Chapter 2

**Um, yeah. So you get one less chapter than you thought, because the first one was originally supposed to be split up. Sorry. Don't know why I did that. :P**

**It's all new after this, though. I'll try to update a little more regularly, since these are really short chapters.**

**Enjoy.**

Kyo couldn't curse his curiosity enough. Why the hell would he want to grow a bunch of stupid plants, anyway? There wasn't anything exciting about it, and it wasn't like he had a green thumb or anything. He didn't _need_ to grow anything, and he doubted he would have any use for it.

Still… some part of his brain wouldn't let go of the idea. That smile stuck in his head, pushing at his thoughts until Kyo finally caved. Again, it was unintentional that this involved Yuki and his particular gardening. Had he wanted to, Kyo could have used any other means of pursuing his sudden interest. But that damn rat had left his stupid gardening book laying on the table, and Kyo's fingers had twitched and twitched until he picked it up. It was boring, just as Kyo suspected.

But he didn't put it down.

He sat back against the table cross-legged, a few pages of the book turning into 5 and then to 10. He took it in with a sort of delayed interest. He repeated to himself a few times that he would never actually get around to growing anything, and that reading this thing was pointless, though his eyes kept going over line after line. Some of the stuff wasn't that dull. Some of the plants were a little interesting, and Kyo hadn't thought that there were so many ways that you could mess up growing something as simple as a flower. Water and sunshine, that's what Kyo had always thought it needed – nothing else. There were other things, like nutrients, and proper air temperatures, and silly things like talking to it. He read about how plants actually 'felt' things like happy and sad, and how with some you had to be careful with the season or placement because of bugs. Kyo found that Yuki had actually been writing in the book itself. There were little notes in the margins all over the place commenting on some sort of plant or underlining something important. There were even a couple of pictures, messily sketched as reminders or tips. Still, it was _boring_. Really.

Kyo just didn't feel like putting it down, that was all.

"What are you doing?"

Kyo straightened from his slouched position in surprise, his back scraping painfully against the side of the table he had been leaning on. "Nothing!" Was his too-quick response, whirling around to face the owner of the book, snapping it shut in his hands. Face flushing for no reason and acting like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have, Kyo set the book back on the table when Yuki looked down at it. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, and he picked it up, flipping through the pages.

"What were you doing?" He asked again, but Kyo didn't respond. Instead he stood up and began to walk away, an annoying blush still making his ears turn red. "Stupid cat, I _asked_ you what you were doing." Yuki growled, following after Kyo.

"I wasn't doing anything!" Kyo insisted over his shoulder as he grabbed for his shoes, planning on going for a jog to clear his head.

"Why would you be reading this, then?" Yuki demanded, still not convinced he hadn't tampered with something, though he was unable to find any flaw in the book. "You're going into gardening?"

"Hell no!" Kyo said, a little too loudly. "Who the hell would want to dig around in the dirt just to grow some stupid bush?" His shoes were on and his hand was on the door before Yuki could stop him. The twitch of annoyance he felt at Kyo's last words went un-avenged, the door slamming shut before he could say anything. Instead, he was left standing there, staring down at the book that he still couldn't find anything wrong with, a little confused at such a strong reaction from someone who hadn't done anything wrong.

**TBC**


	3. Chapter 3

**New-ness starts here, for those who already read the first two chapters as one. Don't forget to review. :D**

Yuki didn't know what make of it. Kyo's behavior was, simply put, strange. Not so simply put, it was annoyingly out of character and a little more than confusing to observe. Just to see what would happen, Yuki left another of his books on the table again; when he returned back downstairs from a short trip to his room, Kyo had picked it up. Still highly suspicious of him, Yuki stood silently in the doorway for a minute. He didn't tear out any pages. He didn't draw in it. He didn't laugh at it, or comment about it, or make any sign that he thought it was as 'stupid' as he insisted it was.

He was just _reading_.

Yuki was ready to sneak up behind him to get a better look when Shigure walked in through the door. Kyo tensed visibly, tossing the book down quickly and glaring at it accusingly. What the hell _was_ his problem? With that, Yuki would have figured he'd been looking at something embarrassing – not a gardening book. What was he doing? Aspiring secretly to be a biologist or something? Still caught up in trying to figure out just what was going on with the other boy, he forgot himself and was still staring at him when Kyo turned around. The cat refused to look directly at him, going red again and turning away stiffly to hurry out of the house, leaving Yuki again in bafflement. Kyo had insisted that he didn't want to be a gardener. He'd called plants stupid and dismissed the whole thing. What on earth would he be _trying_ to do by reading his planting book if it didn't matter to him at all? When Kyo had found out about his garden, he had teased him about it, calling him an idiot for going out in storms to save it or spending so much time on it. What business could he possibly have reading gardening books?

**_TBC_**


	4. Chapter 4

**LOLSHORT. Yah. Really short. Cuz I like it like that.**

**Remember to review, please.**

"…So." Kyo's back tensed, whirling around from the counter to find Yuki standing in the doorway of the kitchen. "You're not interested in gardening," The rat stated, raising an annoyed eyebrow at him, to which Kyo merely bristled.

"I thought you went out." He snapped tersely, quick to realize that he'd probably just been tricked. The guy had announced he was going out to his garden mere minutes earlier, and following that Kyo had gone to the kitchen to get some water, finding yet another book left open on the counter. Figuring he was safe for a while at least, Kyo had begun flipping through it. Leave it to the sneaky rat to catch him. _Again._

"I did. Now I'm back. What were _you_ doing?" Kyo nearly grimaced at the curious look that he was being given – he wasn't being glared at, or accused of anything, or yelled at – he was just being _watched._ And that ticked him off.

"Nothing," Kyo insisted, moving away from the counter to the sink so he could put the emptied water glass inside.

"You're acting too suspicious for it to be 'nothing'." Yuki was still staring at him, still standing in the god damned doorway, leaning against the frame and being oh-so-annoying.

"It's not any of your business," Kyo growled between his teeth, turning to the back door.

"It is if you're messing with my things," Yuki retorted, a demanding tone reaching his voice as he stepped forward as if to stop Kyo.

"Then don't leave your shit lying around!" Kyo wrenched the door open, even though he was barefoot. He didn't have a chance to run out, though, or really open the door all the way. It was slammed shut as Yuki's palm pressed it closed. Kyo bit back an angry snarl, glaring daggers at the rat over his shoulder with a death grip still on the doorknob.

Yuki allowed the silence to pass for a moment. "Are you running away?" He asked, not meaning it as a challenge, but an incentive for Kyo to stay and save face. Unfortunately, Kyo _took_ it as a challenge, and turned to face him. Yuki winced as his shirt collar was grabbed and he was thrust backward.

"Leave me the hell alone!" Kyo snarled, red eyes aglow with resentment. "Like I have to explain anything to _you_," he added with a push before continuing his way out the door unchallenged.

Yuki sighed, leaning against the counter and straightening his shirt back out.

Time to change tactics

**TBC**


	5. Chapter 5

**Rawr. It's 1:15 AM. **

**AND SO THIS CHAPTER IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE. SOMETIME. BECAUSE I'M SURE THERE's SOMETHING WRONG WITH IT.**

They showed up that afternoon.

Tohru and Yuki had finished placing a few dishes on the table for lunch. Shigure was humming cheerfully at the tasty food displayed before him, and Kyo was politely waiting for the other two to sit down. They had all just begun to dig in when, during a pause in the conversation, Tohru finally noticed them sitting there in the middle of the table.

"Are these new gloves, Yuki-kun?" Tohru asked, picking them up and turning them over in her hands. Kyo regarded them thoughtfully. Orange - an interesting color choice - clean, stiff, and still smelling like they store they came from, if was difficult to relate them to the ones Yuki usually wore.

"They're not mine," Yuki replied calmly, chopsticks dipping into his bowl of rice.

"Eh?"

"They're the stupid cat's."

In an instant, Kyo knew exactly what he was trying to pull, and slapped a hand onto the table. "Damn rat, what the hell-"

"No _wonder_ they'e such an ugly color," Shigure laughed, ruffling Kyo's hair roughly. "Yuki-kun, I was starting to doubt your fashion sense."

Kyo pushed him off furiously. "Get _off_, they aren't-"

"My, my, Kyon, what have you done to get the privilege of seeing the secret base, mm?"

Tohru's eyes lit up immediately. "Then- then you'll both be working in the garden together?"

"That's right, Honda-san."

"_Like hell we will! THEY'RE NOT-"_

"Oh Kyo-kun, that's so wonderful!" Tohru cried, nearly throwing herself at him with the gloves clutched tightly in her hands, tears in her eyes. "You're really working at getting along, aren't you?"

Blinking perplexedly under this sudden onslaught, Kyo held his hands up. "W-wait… I - that's not -"

"Maybe we could all work there together! Oh, that would be so much fun!" Smiling was far worse than tears - she pushed the gloves into his hands and he had no choice but to accept them. "Gardening is really a lot of fun!"

"Right…" he muttered, not willing to wipe the absurdly happy look off Tohru's face. He hung his head in defeat and let her fantasize over how great it would be. No need to tell her there was _no way in hell a dirty trick like that would work on him_.

Instead, he shot Yuki the nastiest glare he could muster as they finished eating, sure that even though Yuki was looking serenely into his rice bowl, he could _feel_ the hole he was burning right through his skull.

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**:) Thanks for the reviews guys. Another short chapter here... but, yeah. We're getting to it.**

**Oh, and for those of you wondering, I'm still deciding whether or not this story is going be yaoi/shonen-ai or not. If it does, i'll make sure to warn those of you who don't like to read that kind of thing, so don't forget to read this top part...**

**Enjoy :)**

There ensued a brief clash of stubbornness between the two male youths.

Yuki wasn't surprised to find the gloves smack in the center of his room before the day was done. He knew Kyo wasn't going to go without a fight, but he already had pitted Tohru (unknowingly) against him, and he didn't need much more ammo than that. Now it was just a matter of breaking him down and getting him to actually come to the garden. It'd be much easier with Tohru around, at least for the first few times. If Kyo still conveyed the same hostility towards the experience after that, fine - he could sneak around reading whatever he wanted.

But first he'd have to come willingly.

The gloves had come to represent a pivotal piece of this particular battle. Yuki had thought, originally, that Tohru's brilliant act of being the one to place the gloves in Kyo's hands would _keep_ them there, without question. However, as Yuki found out the night he'd assumed mission complete, Kyo had a very different view of the matter. In fact, his mentality seemed to be that possessing the gloves was equivalent to surrendering. The gloves were chucked unceremoniously into Yuki's room every time he tried to be polite and set them back in the cat's room. He put them on Kyo's desk, they ended up crumpled up against the wall; he put them on his bed, they ended up inside his pillowcase; he strung them up to the inside of his door, and they ended up suspended between his window and the bug screen.

Quite obviously, neither of them were budging. The animosity radiating off Kyo every time they were in the same room was enough to send innocent bystanders scampering for cover. Of course, it would take more than that to deter Yuki. He wasn't without a few tricks up his sleeve, and in any case, he always had Tohru as a trusty back-up plan if Kyo absolutely wouldn't come willingly.

There was a loud cracking sound Wednesday morning when their class had been instructed to take out notebooks and pencils.

"Sohma! Is there a problem?" Their teacher barked as the rest of the room stared at Kyo. His hand was balled into a fist on his desk, which he had just struck with a fair amount of force, the other shaking as it held his bag open. A little bit of orange peeked over the edge, next to a black notebook.

Kyo ripped it out. "No, Ma'am," he snarled, tearing pages as he found a blank one for notes and thrust his bag back to the floor.

"_Good," _she snapped right back. "Eyes on the board." And she turned around to whip out quick words on the chalkboard.

After class, Yuki left to attend his school representative duties.

He'd barely sat down at his desk when the door slammed open, startling Nao, Kimi, and Manabe.

"Eeeeh? What's going on?" Kimi exclaimed as a simmering individual stepped menacingly into the room.

Nao stood, foolishly, and blocked the entrance. "What do you think you're doing here? This isn-"

But he was pushed aside as Kyo strode in, eyes locked on Yuki. He didn't speak, merely advanced on him, wrenched him around so he could thrust what was undoubtedly the rough material of the gloves down the back of his shirt, and strode out again.

There was a blank sort of silence before -

"What in the world was _that_!"

"Is Yun-yun being sexually harassed?"

"Of course not - that your _cousin_, wasn't it?"

"You two fighting, President?"

Yuki sighed, un-tucking his shirt so he could fish the gloves out. He tossed them onto his desk for the inspection of his class representatives, and was met with a resounding: **?**

He shrugged, grimacing as he touched the nape of his neck, where there was now something similar to a rug burn.

"It wasn't supposed to be an _insult,_" He muttered grumpily.

**TBC**


	7. Chapter 7

**Um... it's probably about time I got this finished up. Maybe. Seeing as how my last update was, y'know... almost a year ago... orz**

**I'm sorryyyyyy**

Kyo went up the stairs slowly, counting them as he went, concentrating on each one. Maybe if he was in the right state of mind he _wouldn't _lose his temper on seeing those stupid orange gloves again - because they were definitely there, waiting for him in his room. He just had to reach a state of neutrality, then keep himself there long enough to dispose of them without breaking anything.

As he took a few calming breaths, he thought _okay, I can do this_, right before opening his door.

And then he saw that no, he really _couldn't_.

Jaw clenching, Kyo stood rigidly in his doorway and said slowly, "Get. Out."

"I just want to talk," Yuki said lightly, as if he _wasn't_ a stupid, nosy, rat bastard sitting on his bed like he owned the place.

"_I _don't," Kyo's eyes, narrowed, were already dangerously catlike.

Not that Yuki seemed intimidated - only exasperated. "Look, _these_," he slid the dreaded orange gloves into view. "Are yours. Stop being stubborn and just accept them."

"No they're not!" Kyo snapped. "I don't want them!

"Why not? Would it kill you to come to the garden _once_ and-"

"Why the hell do you even want me there? I already told you - I don't _care_ about plants or gardening or any of it! So don't act like you want to spend time with me, because we both know that's not true, damn rat!" He held his fists at his sides, wanting so badly to use them. Yuki still sat there, calmly regarding him, as if the jerk thought he could act all innocent.

"Not necessarily," Yuki said quietly.

"What?"

Yuki shrugged a shoulder nonchalantly. "I'm not against spending time with you, Kyo," he said, a curious look on his face. To which Kyo didn't have anything to say. He stared at the other in bewilderment - _enraged_ bewilderment, of course, but bewilderment nonetheless. He wasn't against spending time with him? What the hell was that supposed to mean? He opened his mouth, meaning to say something indignant, angry, _something_, but found that the words weren't yet formed in his head, so he closed it again. Yuki was looking him in the eyes, and Kyo found it a struggle to look away.

Until Yuki ruined the moment by adding; "Providing you come to the garden, of course."

Kyo didn't know what it was. The way Yuki said it, maybe, with a strange lilting quality to his voice, one that suggested a grin that hadn't yet formed on his face. Then again, it was probably the way he looked at him - like he could persuade him with a teasing tip of his head, hands spreading passively over his bed cover as he leant forward to look at him up through his eyelashes.

Whatever it was, Kyo snapped and found his voice again.

"Go to hell!" He shouted, starting towards the rat angrily. But before he could touch him -

"Is something the matter?"

Yuki smiled pleasantly as Kyo turned with stiff shoulders to look at Tohru, standing uncertainly in the doorway. She took one look at Kyo's enraged face and, suspicions confirmed, grew even more worried.

"What's going on in here?"

"Nothing at all, Honda-san," Yuki said lightly, gracefully pushing himself up off Kyo's bed. As he passed Kyo, he reached up to the boy's loose collar and tucked the orange gloves into his shirt - not shoving them down the way Kyo had done, but letting them rest on top of Kyo's shoulder. Kyo, spluttering and scrambling to grab them, was the one who knocked them down his own shirt.

By the time the red-head had fished them out, Yuki had slid past Tohru and down the hall, and Kyo was left there furiously clutching them in his hand. When Tohru saw them, her face lit up, and Kyo cringed before the girl had even taken a breath.

"We'll probably be going to pick some fresh onions soon!" She told him happily.

Kyo opened and closed his mouth at her like a fish out of water - _again_ - desperately trying to think of something to say, _anything _that would crush all of Tohru's hopes and dreams about him and Yuki without actually _crushing _them, maybe just folding them up neatly and tucking them away somewhere where Tohru could fantasize about them idly but _certainly_ not think they were _possible_. Anger was still writhing in him, though, and was crashing headlong into Tohru's infectious smile, and before he could find a proper way to placate either, Shigure's voice sounded down below and the girl left him.

He staggered to the door and thudded his head on the doorframe, groaning.

Time for his own plan B, then.

**TBC**


End file.
